Value addition to a waste olefin feed is one of the biggest challenges for large scale industries. In general practice, the olefin waste feed is blended as fuel in LPG, gasoline, diesel or fuel oil. The olefin by-product stream generated at the polyolefin production plant comprises significant amount of olefins. For example a “polyethylene column residue” generated while manufacturing ethylene-octene copolymer comprises octene at the rate of 7900 kg/day.
Different methodologies have been practiced in prior-art for value-addition to these olefin by-product streams. Catalytic oligomerization of olefins is considered as one of the routes for value addition. Oligomerization is generally carried out on alpha-olefins. The oligomerized products of an alpha-olefin are further processed in variety of forms that include hydrogenated polyalpha-olefins, motor oils, synthetic lubricating oil, hydrogenated polydecenes as emollients, carrier oils in cosmetics, hydrogenated polyisobutenes as emollient and moisturizer.